


Hibernation

by FalonomAfterMidnight



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff and Crack, Gen, Headcanon, Humor, Immortals, Light Angst, Parody, Sharing a Bed, Shout-outs, Sleep, What-If, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-05 15:11:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14621340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FalonomAfterMidnight/pseuds/FalonomAfterMidnight
Summary: What if Gems went to sleep for the Winter?





	Hibernation

**Author's Note:**

> That is, what if _Steven Universe_ had _Houseki No Kuni_ / _Land Of The Lustrous_ elements incorporated? Sorry, but ever since there were so many similarities between the two works pointed out, I just had to take the initiative to make a story that's actually rather... silly, when you think about it.

One cold Winter evening, a half-Gem, half-human boy named Steven Universe had finished taking a hot shower and had changed into his cozy banana pyjamas. He was about to head straight to bed when he saw a most beautiful sight through his window.

"Guys! Guys! It's snowing!" he cheered to his caretakers, the Crystal Gems.

Steven was about to go down the stairs to the main floor when he saw the Gems... in the most unusual of forms. They were all dressed in sleepwear not much different from humans; Amethyst was in an oversized black shirt, Pearl was wearing a long pink nightgown, and Garnet was in a buttoned blue top and red bottom. The three were sitting on the couch with various items scattered around on the table.

"So, may I sleep in your room this year, Garnet?" Pearl asked, tugging on Garnet's sleeve.

"NO." the Fusion sternly answered. After all, three was a crowd for Garnet; Ruby and Sapphire preferred it that nobody else would butt in on their three-month isolation. One year, they had finally relented and let Pearl in their room much to her giddy glee, but then Pearl got a little too... cuddly and clingy in her sleep, which had led to her getting kicked out after the first night. So from then on, Pearl always had something else oversized to hug in her own room instead; namely, a rose-colored body pillow.

"Yeah, I mean, how would you like it if _I_ slept in your room?" Amethyst teased Pearl through a mouthful of donuts (all bought from, of course, The Big Donut).

Pearl cringed at the thought of a Gem who was literally living in a dump bringing a mess into her neat and tidy resting space. So, Pearl took the initiative to change the subject. "Amethyst, I really don't think you should be eating all those snacks before bed." Pearl warned the purple Gem. She was referring to all the junk food and soda that Amethyst was shoveling down her throat at a ridiculous pace.

"But don't bears do this too?" brought up Amethyst, trying to add mitigating factors to her gluttony.

"Either way, I think it's just about that time we go to bed now." Garnet stood up and stretched out.

"Huh?" Steven went all the way down the stairs and into the living room. "W-where are you guys going?"

Noticing Steven, Pearl decided to simply tell him their plans. "Why, hibernation, Steven!" She cheerfully replied, holding up her body pillow.

"H... hibernation?" Steven had actually heard that term before, as a young child, when he was learning about the Winter season and where certain animals (such as frogs, bats, and squirrels) go when it gets too cold and/or it becomes too difficult to find food. But the Gems were anything _but_ animals--they were alien rocks--so he was wondering why they would casually throw around such a term.

"We're gonna go to sleep, Ste-Man!" Amethyst said, trying to sound confident.

"But I thought that Gems don't need to go to sleep!" Steven noted. He was right, and Gems in general also don't need to eat, drink, or even breathe.

"Well, as you know, Steven, Gems use light for their bodies, since our physical bodies are actually projections generated by our gemstone." Pearl explained. "Unfortunately, the average amount of sunny days during the Winter season is only ten. So, staying active all the time would very draining and even detrimental for a Gem."

"Do _I_ have to hibernate?" Steven tilted his head with a quizzical look on his face. He didn’t think that he was always tired during the Winter, but now he wasn’t entirely sure.

"Oh, no, _you_ don't have to worry about that. After all, you're half-human." Amethyst reassured. Besides, if a human heart's temperature dropped down to around 28 °C, let alone 1 °C, that person would be dead.

Steven was afraid of asking, because he knew that Winter lasted for at least 90 days, which meant those animals would stay sleeping for that amount of time. But he asked anyway to check his suspicions. "How long is this hibernation gonna take...?"

"Three months." Garnet replied. To the immortal Gem, three months was no big deal, as they (in theory) can live for _thousands_ of years. But to a human, it was a pretty long quarter of a year.

" _THREE MONTHS?!?!_ " Steven cried, his hands on his head. "WHAT AM I GONNA DO WITHOUT YOU GUYS FOR THREE MONTHS?!"

"Don't-don't worry. You can always wake us up in case of an emergency." Garnet quickly said, and then her glasses shined, like they always did when she was right about say something insightful. "There's always a chance that an enemy may come and attack, but these months of slower activity make it easy to predict."

Not wanting Steven to be worried all Winter, Pearl tried to calm him. "If you ever need us for anything important, please, just tell us!" Pearl pleaded.

Amethyst tightly hugged Steven to soothe him. "See you, space cowboy..." she playfully comforted.

Garnet then bent down and kissed Steven's forehead. "We love you."

The three walked up to their rooms, then turned around and said, "Goodnight, Steven." And the Crystal Gems all disappeared into their sleeping areas, one-by-one.

"G-goodnight..." And after staring at the Temple door for a while, Steven finally went to bed too for the night. He mentally told himself that they weren't actually going anywhere, and that they were always going to be right there for him.

* * *

Meanwhile, inside the Barn...

Lapis Lazuli, wearing a large white shirt, was already dozing off in her hammock; but then again, the blue NEET ( **N** ot in **E** mployment, **E** ducation, or **T** raining) Gem often enjoyed sleeping as one of her hobbies, besides watching TV shows and reading. In fact, ironically, Lapis would probably be the _most_ active during the Winter; she already does enough sleeping for the past three Earth seasons!

"Aw, no fair!" Peridot chuckled. "You're already way far ahead of me!" The green Gem, in warm chartreuse footies with little aliens decorated on them, was finishing setting up a personal makeshift bed on the floor with pillows, a small mattress, and comfort blankies.

"Don't expect me to be like this for the _whole_ Winter, workaholic." Lapis opened a eye and teased Peridot.

Peridot finally climbed into her bed and let out a sigh. "Ahh... 'Night, Lapis." she said as she hugged her alien plushie. Peridot then closed her eyes and drifted off.

"'Night, Peridot." Lapis replied, then went right back to snoring in her hammock.

* * *

Meanwhile, on Homeworld--

Yeah, even the ominous, busy Homeworld hibernates. No, of course they don't have "Winter" exactly like Earth does with snow and such; even in their part of space, thanks to being in at least some sort of proximity to a star (that's kind of like the Sun), there will be months were the light is dimmer than usual. And, as it turns out, their months just so happen to fall into the Crystal Gems' hibernation times. (Yeah, go ahead, call it a crazy coincidence.)

Somewhere, where the Homeworld spaceships are held, five Rubies (being smart for once) decided to simply go to sleep in their Roaming Eye; just in case the redshirts would need to be sent somewhere in an expendable emergency. They chose to all lie down right next to each other in a roll-up futon-like bed.

From a normal onlooker's POV, the order was as follows: Doc was on the farthest right side, Army was on the second-farthest right, youngest member Leggy was protected right in the middle, Eyeball was on the second-farthest left, and Navy was on the farthest left side. Wearing pyjamas in all different shades of red, the five all snuggled up together; hey, if they were gonna die easily, they may as well die easily together as a squad!

* * *

At Pink Diamond's Zoo, while most of the Famethyst--that is, all the Amethyst, Japser, and Carnelian soldiers--were already snoring in their holes, quite a few of them chose to either lie on top of each other, or sprawl out and snore on the floor instead. They didn't mind any sort of sleeping positions in the slightest nor did they mind any sort or colors of sleepwear (save for those ultra-feminine nightgowns); all they desired was three Holly Blue Agate-free months all to themselves.

Speaking of which, the pointy-haired, whip-wielding blue Gem had no choice but to reluctantly head to her not-so-cushy cot (and not-so-pretty sleepwear; don't ask) instead of keeping watch on the Quartz soldiers; being drained of energy _really_ ruined her effectiveness as a nasty drill sergeant.

Anyway, the lone Carnelian decided that she couldn't sleep without her 'sister' Skinny Jasper. Therefore, they decided to curl up together in Skinny's hole and remain that way for the entire time. Some of the rest, having seen this, realized that they wanted sleeping buddies too. And there were actually a few that didn't mind dogpiling on top of one another.

* * *

Somewhere, on a different Homeworld planet, the Defense Zircon just couldn't settle down. She was already dressed in mauve pyjamas and wearing a mauve nightcap on her head, but there was too much worrying to be done to feel sleepy; her being in a nervous wreck was perfectly understandable, considering her job. Pacing back and forth in front of the entrance to her room, she was monologuing to herself about the future. "...That means there would be only 274 days left 'till the _next_ hibernation after this one!" She lisped.

"Oh, hush." The Prosecuting Zircon passed by her on the way to her own room. "You're just gonna pass out on the floor at this rate." she snarked. The Prosecuting Zircon, in lime pyjamas and wearing a lime nightcap on her head, was really not in the mood to have to put a pillow over her head to block out any shouts.

Lying down in bed wasn't much help, either. The Defending Zircon couldn't help but toss and turn for a long while before finally passing out. On the other hand, the Prosecuting Zircon closed her eyes smugly... and woke up 20 minutes later after having a nightmare involving her boss, Yellow Diamond. For her, going _back_ to sleep became a bit of a challenge.

* * *

A golden rule that went around on Homeworld during these times was that, you have permission to wake up the Diamonds _only_ if it's an extreme emergency, such as an enemy invasion. If you woke them up during hibernation and what you woke them up for turns out to not be so important after all, well... say hello to a one-way ticket to an instant shattering. (It looks like beauty sleep is taken seriously around here!)

In the matriarch quarters, was a special bedroom reserved for this very occasion. Inside of the room, there was a humongous, luxurious bed for the Diamonds, and a much smaller (but still relatively large and luxurious) bed for their Pearls. Two of the four Gems were already in the darkened bedroom.

Of the two Diamonds, Blue Diamond was the most eager to just hurry up and go to sleep already to forget about all the eternal pain and suffering following Pink Diamond's death. But she would rather fall asleep at the same as Yellow Diamond, as it made her feel more secure if one of her closest family members (if not only) was right next to her. So, she was already in her dark blue pyjamas and laying in the big bed, impatiently waiting for Yellow to come in soon.

Blue Pearl, wearing an alice blue nightgown, was already snuggled in the smaller bed and trying to sleep, but she was anticipating Yellow Pearl to crawl in beside her at any moment. Sinking down into her large pillow, she took the time to appreciate sleeping alone in the now.

After what seemed like ages, Yellow Diamond and her Pearl finally entered the room at the same time, both looking completely haggard and drowsy. Yellow Pearl was wearing an outfit that was almost identical to Blue Diamond's Pearl's: a nightgown, but beige in color instead. Yellow Diamond, on the other hand, was wearing pyjamas similar to Blue Diamond's, but they were dark yellow in color.

"It's about time you finally got here..." Blue Diamond said, slightly sitting up in the bed.

"What, do you prefer to have your work pile up after a three-month absence, Blue?" Yellow Diamond sleepily muttered and rubbed her forehead.

"Always so busy even when you're supposed to be recharging, Yellow..." Blue Diamond giggled.

Yellow Diamond, ignoring her remark, sat down on her side of the bed and sighed, "Let's just get this over with, shall we...?" Deep down, she _really_ enjoyed resting, but Yellow felt as if her duties as one of the rulers of Gemkind were far more important priorities.

At the relieving sight of a big bed welcoming her, Yellow Pearl burst into a run and quite literally jumped onto her side, causing Blue Pearl to bounce a little. As Yellow Pearl was happily sliding into the covers and sinking down into her own pillow, she didn't notice that Blue Pearl had turned around and gave an annoyed glare at her _very_ rude entry.

"Goodnight, Pearl..." Yellow and Blue Diamond simultaneously said to their servants.

"Goodnight, my Diamond..." Their Pearls sweetly said at the same time, right before yawning and going out like the lights.

Yellow Daimond went under the covers, and collapsed onto the pillow. Feeling that the weight of the bed was finally shifted to a balance, Blue immediately nestled over to her fellow Diamond, smiling, and they fell asleep together.

And with that, Homeworld went completely silent for around the next 90 days and nights.

**Author's Note:**

> Good GOD... I've never made a _Steven Universe_ fanfic this wide-scale in setting before! 
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading!


End file.
